At the programming bootcamp I went to a few years ago, I ended up adding gmail-like chat to my "final project", a Ruby on Rails application using this tutorial (which I noticed I still had bookmarked):

http://josephndungu.com/tutorials/gmail-like-chat-application-in-ruby-on-rails

I knew I wanted to add live chat to my project in the weeks leading up to it, but started to think it was too daunting of a task for a noob like myself. I almost dropped the idea and when the javascript wasn't working at all with only days left before having to present to a bunch of companies, but I took a deep breath and kept at it and managed to make it look and function perfectly in real-time. I was pretty pumped.

Some of the last GIFs at the bottom of that project's repo show the resulting chat in action. You can visit the site but no one uses it so the chat is useless... and I think it still makes you sign in with the linkedin oath.

https://github.com/EWarringer/Freelanswers

Anyway, it helped me realize some things in programming are less daunting than they might seem.

I'd love to hear some fun or purposeful websites/tutorials that boosted your interest (and/or skill level) in programming at any point in your career. Maybe I'll learn something awesome.